Magnetic anisotropy of tau-MnAl thin films

Manganese compounds such as MnAl, MnBi, MnGa have received much attention for their high magnetic anisotropy constants, and also for rare-earth free permanent magnet applications. Despite the fact that voluminous work has been conducted regarding the magnetic anisotropy, the origin of this high magnetic anisotropy energy is not well understood. In the case of MnAl, both Mn and Al elements are known to possess low spin-orbit coupling constants, but the τ-phase MnAl is well known to exhibit high magnetic anisotropy constant K in the order of 1×10⁷ erg/cm³ at room temperature [1]. A systematic study of temperature dependence of both the saturation magnetization M_S and magnetic anisotropy constant K in τ-MnAl thin films has been carried out in order to elucidate the magnetic anisotropy mechanism.